Morning Word
AGs call for RECA expansion
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, joined by 13 other attorneys general, wrote to congressional leaders recently urging expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to cover so-called New Mexico “downwinders” and post-1971 uranium miners exposed to and sickened by nuclear testing in the state. Their 80-year-fight for justice has garnered heightened attention due to the high-profile film Oppenheimer, although that movie makes no mention of the impact the Trinity Test had on the people who lived in New Mexico at the time of the Manhattan Project. The US Senate at the end of July passed an expansion and extension RECA as part of the National Defense Authorization Act including the New Mexico cohorts for the first time. President Joe Biden, during a visit to the state earlier this month, indicated he is open to compensating New Mexico victims of atomic testing in response to comments by US Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, who raised the issue and has introduced RECA legislation annually since being elected to the US House in 2008. AGs from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia joined Torrez in his letter to House leaders urging adoption of the US Senate amendments. Torrez also wrote an opinion piece that recently appeared in the Albuquerque Journal regarding his family’s experience being downwind from the Trinity test site.
State HR director retires
State Personnel Office Director L. Teresa Padilla retires today after more than 20 years with state government. According to a news release, Padilla joined SPO as the deputy director in September 2021 and became director a year later. Prior to joining the state personnel office, Padilla worked for the health department, and spent 16 years working at the Santa Fe Detention Center, and as director of HR for two 24/7 detention centers in both Santa Fe and Los Lunas before joining state government. In a statement, Padilla thanked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for the opportunity to be the state’s personnel director describing the work as “rewarding and the ultimate achievement in my career.” As the overseer of personnel policies, Padilla stood on the front lines of a messy post-pandemic fight over the governor’s return-to-work policies at the start of the year. “Director Padilla ushered the state through a monumental and safe transition back to in-person work following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the governor said in a statement. “While leading the State Personnel Office, she created a strong infrastructure that will serve state employees for decades. I want to wish Teresa a well-deserved retirement and thank her for her service to the State of New Mexico.” SPO General Counsel Dylan Lange will serve as interim director of SPO.
Low water pressure closes SFCC
Low water pressure from nearby construction projects closed Santa Fe Community College yesterday, and the school will remain closed today. According to a news release, the “lower-than-normal water pressure has compromised the college’s fire suppression system, which prohibits the public or employees from coming onto campus.” The school says county officials say work to “reenergize the high-pressure waterline” is underway but crews require more time to complete the project. The closure includes all of the main campus facilities, including the William C. Witter Fitness Education Center, Kids Campus and La Familia Medical Center. Online college services and online classes are available, but neither students, employees nor members of the public can enter campus until the situation has been resolved, the school says. “The college appreciates everyone’s patience while the situation is resolved,” SFCC President Becky Rowley said in a statement. “We realize the closure impacts our students and community members who rely on SFCC’s services. The safety of our students and the public remains our top priority.”
The unraveling legacy of Native American boarding schools
New Mexico figures heavily in a devastating in-depth New York Times report on the history of Native American boarding schools. The story reports that new accounting tallies at least 523 institutions among the “sprawling network of boarding schools for Native American children.” Many of those children, the story notes, “faced beatings, malnutrition, hard labor and other forms of neglect and abuse. Some never returned to their families. Hundreds are known to have died, a toll expected to grow as research continues.” US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a former New Mexico congresswoman, announced a federal boarding school initiative in June 2021 intended to “address the inter-generational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past,” Haaland said at the time. As the Times notes, Haaland has traveled across the US since then, holding “listening sessions,” and a bill in the US Senate would create a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies. The Times story delves into the policies and abuses rampant at the schools, and include historical photographs, such as ones showing young boys with flags at the Albuquerque Indian School, where students were trained to become soldiers, and another of young girls also at the Albuquerque Indian School, in a sewing class, being trained to work as domestic workers. “In 1905 and 1906, the Albuquerque Indian School sent 100 boys and 14 girls to work in Colorado, on the railroad and in the beet fields,” the story notes. The story ends with images of a downtown Albuquerque park that was once the school’s cemetery.
Listen up
This week’s SFR cover story by Sara Van Note, “Replenishing the San Juan River,” examines an historic partnership between the state of New Mexico and the Jicarilla Apache Nation under which the tribe is leasing up to 20,000 acre feet of water per year. The novel partnership is creating revenue for the Jicarilla Apache Nation; a potential solution to the state’s water obligations; and hope for a river and fishes on the brink. It may also help create a template for future partnerships. Listen to an audio version of the story reported and narrated by Van Note on KUNM.
A New Mexico for every season
Is there a bad time to visit New Mexico? Judging by the traffic around here, we say no. The travel pros at Travel & Leisure magazine, however, have thoughts on the “best” time to visit for “good weather, outdoor adventure and festivals.” According to the experts, shoulder seasons are the best time to visit for smaller crowds: March to April and October to November. For good weather, senior US and Southeast Asia specialist at Audley Travel and a Travel + Leisure A-List Advisor Mary Cropper likes early spring “because it is not overheated.The weather is still crisp, and you can see snow-capped mountains in the distance. If someone is a skier, they can still hit the slopes, but it’s not freezing.” Agree—and it’s particularly fun for folks who love gusty winds. For visitors in search of lower prices (for flights and hotels, not for housing and groceries, we assume), both Cropper and Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe “adventure center architect” Hans Loehr recommend November. Outdoor adventures? Late spring, early fall and winter (for hiking and skiing, respectively). Festival season? Summer and fall. In other words: Come anytime...except maybe April.
A (fashion) star is born
Vogue magazine spotlights recent Institute of American Indian Arts graduate Jontay Kahm (Plains Cree), who presented his first full collection—and his IAIA thesis— “Regalian Bodies”—at the most recent Santa Fe Indian Market where he “wowed the audience with his sculptural assortment of technically impressive feather and fringe gowns; each one more colorful and exuberant than the next.” Kahm tells Vogue: “I really wanted to stand out with this show, because it was my big debut.” (Kahm also had a pop-up show, “Forever Beautiful: Inside My Mind” during Indian Market weekend at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native American Arts. As for the designs he unveiled during the Indigenous Fashion Show, Vogue Senior Fashion and Style writer Christian Allaire (Ojibwe) writes that Kahm’s couture pieces “are all sorts of extravagant. Kahm toyed with sculptural, voluminous dresses inspired by his Indigenous culture, abstract art, and the afterlife.” The artist tells him: “I played around with the idea of feather dresses, bustles, and ribbon dresses—taking ribbon skirts and making them ribbon gowns…I wanted to touch on my Native culture and elements of traditional regalia—using obvious shapes and silhouettes, but making it more fashion.”
Farewell, August
The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day with a high temperature near 86 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon.
Thanks for reading! The Word, as many know, loves Zozobra with a fiery passion. And she’s giving away two pairs of tickets to the first two folks who respond to this email with a great reason for wanting them.
